The Variety of Price Control Experiences

Daniel Gross sees "Soviet-style price controls" returning to Russia. Tyler Cowen disagrees seeing stylistically different and less pernicious price controls now coming into vogue. To back Tyler up, I'll note that in Nizhny Novgorod circa 1998 at least a lot of food was being retailed in very informal shops and stands where one would expect enforcement of price control regimes to be very lax. It's quite possible that given the improved economic conditions of the past ten years, these distribution mechanisms have fallen into disuse in favor of a supermarkets, but surely things can flip back if necessary.

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